events

From 23rd – 25th March, Fotonature will run photography classes on La Palma. All classes take place in Spanish in the Casa de Cultura in Los Llanos de Aridane, although two of the teachers are from the United States and will presumably give their talk with a translator. These classes are free. Jane Menyawi is the photography editor for National Geographic books. She’ll talk about designing and creating your own…

Spain celebrates Father’s Day on March 19th, which is St. Jospeh’s Day (St. Joseph being Jesus’s earthly father.) So fathers will get gifts and charming, wobbly cards made at school. Since the Spanish name for St. Joseph is San José, the village of San José will be celebrating too (although the main fiesta is for St. Anne, in July). Although the 19th is Monday, most of the events happen over…

La Palma doesn’t see many travelling circuses, probably because the ferry fares work out so expensive. I think the last time one visited was about four years ago. The Gran Circo Mundial (Big World Circus) advertises Pirates of the Carribean acrobats, a crocodile hypnotist, twins on dancing horses, trapeeze artists, jugglers, lions, tigers, and clowns. The circus will be in the port car park in Santa Cruz de la Palma…

Every year Santa Cruz has a demonstration of living statues, and I believe this year is the fifth year they’ve had them. If you haven’t seen them before, living statues stand perfectly still (or try to!) until you put money in the hat (or whatever), and then they perform. They’re performing along the main street of Santa Cruz, the Calle Real. Everybody calls it “the Calle Real”, but nowhere along…

A lot of people on La Palma take Holy Week very seriously. The bigger churches hold solemn processions, which look very exotic to my English eyes. They take various heavy statues along the street, and some of these statues are beautiful works of art from the 16th century. But the bit that grabs visitors’ attention is the costumes. They remind me of the Klu Klux Klan. This is unfair, because…